It was protest day. Jordan and I had intended to go to the Senedd and protest with Riley. However a combination of the weather and a change to some of the arrangements meant we weren’t able to go unfortunately. However, I’ve put a post on Facebook and I’ve kept an eye on any updates from Cardiff as the day progresses. It’s essential the Senedd, the public, the world knows and understands the implications of the unworkable WG proposals. It wasn’t even on the BBC lunchtime news. There was a piece on the Sistine Chapel, clearly more important to the BBC than Welsh Farmers. At least the Welsh News was represented at the Senedd…
I followed the same morning routine as usual and let the chickens out and collected the eggs. There were 3. I went to the barn but did not hear any lambs, because there weren’t any. Too many crossed legs! I slung them out and fed Rascal. One of the hens had followed me and was clearly looking for a place to lay🤦♀️ I tried to shoo her out but she was swifter than she looked and I had to go through mud. She got to the stack of bales. I watched her as long as I could, but I needed to check for lambs as it had started raining. She was making laying noises from somewhere out of sight!
There were no ewes lambing outfield but I saw the ones with the reddest raddle. They are the ones we expect to lamb first. It started to rain lightly, which was just awesome. I fed the alpacas and rams without incident and walked back up. I checked the chicken shed and although there was a hen on the nest, there weren’t any more eggs.
I drove to Jordan’s and was pleased to see there was a Council lorry, filling in potholes. With the lane a rat-run of speeding vehicles because of the roadworks, the lane is struggling under the increased traffic. Jordan drove us to Tregurnog so I could check the wethers. They were OK and I collected an unopened cool box that my father had left in the barn. I had a use for that at Garth Hall.
I did the Click and Collect in the truck because I had a few things for Garth Hall. I didn’t want to load things in my car and have to transfer them to the truck. I had cat food tins, crunchies, a box of variety crisps and 3 trays of Cherry Pepsi Max. We would have snacks and drinks for lambing (not the cat food – that’s for Rascal) The trays of pop were on offer. I saw Jordan having hers and queried where mine were. I didn’t have any! My bloody tablet had failed again. It didn’t user error. It’s definitely the tablet being slow. I’ll have to order them next time now. I put the fridge and freezer stuff away and then went to Garth Hall for my afternoon check. I was in a rush, because shock – it was raining heavily now.
I unlocked the padlock and had a quick look in the chicken’s nest. One more egg. Awesome. I put that in the truck. I got my hood sorted then put my waterproof gloves on. I put my rucksack on my back and got the cool box (with the box of crisps inside) I also carried a big bag of shopping and my crook. It was going well until I got to the wall garden gate. I didn’t mind putting the cool box down but had to keep a hold on the big bag for life. It had quite a few holes in it so would let in rainwater and mud. The paper sack with Rasal’s Crunchies would get ruined. It was easy enough to open the gate with one hand the bloody problem was that it swung wide open. I didn’t want to walk any further through the deep mud than I needed. An extra hand would have been useful. One for the bag, one for the coolbox and one for the gate. I don’t have 3 hands though. Brainwave! I opened the gate and caught it with the crook. I picked the cool box up in the hand that had the crook. I walked through, put the cool box down, hung the crook on the gate and secured the wire. I was very pleased with myself.
I checked the railway carriages as I passed. Molly was in one, on her own, calling out. I looked in on her. She wasn’t in labour, just fed up and sheltering. She followed me out. I counted the other 7. None were lambing. I left my shopping in the barn and checked outfield. Nothing to report so I went back.
The crisps had to be unboxed and sealed in the coolbox with Rasal’s Crunchies. The tins were put on the shelf. The lamb boost and Milton’s were left on the table. The next job was to look for the egg. It would literally be like looking for an egg in a haystack. I knew roughly where it would be but I wasn’t optimistic in all honesty. It may only come to light in a few days when more hay is removed. I took the first clump off and put it on the next bale. I’d seen the hen there last and she sounded as though she was in that general direction. I looked back after moving that first armful of hay and there it was, safely nestled in the hay! So that was 5 altogether.
I could hear Neil’s quad coming as I went to put the egg in the truck and put the chickens to bed. He fed the wellfield lot and then did the outfield. We had a quick chat about the protest and I left. Neil did a further evening check with nothing to report. He once again put the wellfield ewes in the barn to be indoors overnight.
When I put the rest of the shopping away in the evening, I ate my last banana. It was then that I realised my tablet had forgotten my bananas for the week too! 🤦♀️
Will there be any lambs to report tomorrow? Or just more missing shopping!
Helen x
